OMB cracks down on stimulus reporting

Stimulus recipients who don't report spending could face consequences — including the loss of stimulus funds, according to a memo released last week by Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag.

The memo asks agency heads to create a list of recipients who didn't file spending reports, the first round of which were due in October. Recipients who didn't file because of technical challenges should receive help from agencies, the memo said; recipients who simply ignored the filing deadline will face harsher punishments.

"Noncompliant recipients ... are subject to federal action, up to and including the termination of federal funding," Orszag wrote.

Approximately 10 percent of stimulus recipients didn't file spending reports; another 15 percent were late, according to the Recovery Accountability and Transparency board.

Commission approves FDA, NIST building plans

The National Capital Planning Commission last week approved updated master plans for the Food and Drug Administration's new consolidated headquarters in the Maryland neighborhood of White Oak and the National Institute of Standards and Technology expanded campus in Gaithersburg, Md. The commission's approval means more detailed design work on the projects can proceed.

The revised FDA master plan increases the number of employees to be located on the 130-acre site to 8,900, up from the 5,000 envisioned when work began in 1996. The NIST plan details new buildings, additions to existing buildings and infrastructure upgrades for the 581-acre campus.

The commission ordered eight changes to the Veterans Affairs Department's draft master plan for the VA Medical Center campus in Northwest Washington. The plan provides a framework for the next 20 years of development on the 35-acre site, including plans to nearly double the size of the existing 900,000-square-foot facility.

The commission directed the VA to ensure the redevelopment complements other neighborhood development, provides access to pedestrians and adheres to parking guidelines, among other things. Developers will incorporate the changes into a preliminary master plan that will go before the commission next year.

House committee investigating Afghan contract

The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee launched an investigation last week into the management of a $404 million contract to train Afghan military and police forces.

The special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction found officials from the Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan, which is responsible for oversight of the training contract, never visited training facilities to ensure that the contractor was performing the work to contract standards, Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., wrote in a Dec. 1 letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

The command runs $15 billion worth of programs designed to support the Afghan National Security Forces.

Towns, chairman of the oversight committee, asked Gates to turn over all documents related to the contract in the May IG report. Neither the IG report nor Towns names the contractor. Towns also asked for contract documents related to a new $800 million training contract that CSTC-A has out for bid.

Obama repeats call to hold feds' raise to 2%

President Barack Obama last week again called for most federal employees to receive an average 2 percent pay raise in January.

If the government followed the statutory formula set by law, employees under the General Schedule would receive an average pay increase of 18.9 percent next year — a 2.4 percent overall pay raise and average locality pay adjustments of 16.5 percent.

But Obama said in a letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Vice President Joe Biden that the government can't afford the $22.6 billion that would cost in 2010, and said it would be inappropriate to hand out such hefty raises when millions of Americans are out of work or dealing with other financial troubles.

The House has approved a 2 percent average pay raise, but the Senate is considering a larger 2.9 percent average pay raise for civilian employees.

New acquisition certification program

American University and professional services firm MCR have partnered to create a new acquisition certification program for federal managers.

The program, certified by the Federal Acquisition Institute, is targeted to employees with four or more years of program and project management experience who are on a path toward joining the Senior Executive Service.

The courses will use "real data to help these managers address the problems they will face," said Robert Tobias, director of American University's Institute for the Study of Public Policy Implementation.

Twenty-two students will be accepted for the six-course program that meets some Mondays and Tuesdays over nine months starting in February. MCR employees will serve as faculty for the courses.

Cost is $9,000, plus $5,000 for optional coaching.

To apply, go to www.american.edu/spa/key.

OMB Watch site enables Recovery Act data search

The watchdog group OMB Watch has a new feature on its contracts database site FedSpending.org: a Recovery Act search feature.

Visitors can search more than 160,000 reports filed on $159 billion worth of Recovery Act grants, contracts and loans awarded as of Sept. 30.

FederalSpending.org users can search the reports, from the government's Recovery.gov site, in aggregate or individually by ZIP code, recipient, subrecipient, congressional district, awarding agency, jobs created and value.

Users can also drill down to see how much of an award was passed from the prime recipient to a subrecipient or vendor. All results can be downloaded, allowing users to crunch the data using their own applications.

The site also has standard reports that list the top 100 recipients, the top 100 subrecipients and the top 100 job creators.

GSA IG investigations recover $460 million

Inspector general investigations and recommendations resulted in approximately $460 million in recoveries for the General Services Administration in the last six months of fiscal 2009, according to GSA IG Brian Miller's semi-annual report to Congress.

Approximately $303 million were saved as a result of recommendations IG auditors made during pre-award audits on GSA contracts, the report said. In addition, GSA recovered $156 million from settlements stemming from IG investigations of contract fraud.

Frugal feds increase savings 56% over 6 months

Federal employees are some of the most frugal people in the country, according to a new survey.

First Command Financial Services, an investment advisory firm based in Fort Worth, Texas, found that federal employees increased their average monthly savings to $2,289 between April and September — a 56 percent increase over the previous six-month period.

During the same period, other middle-class Americans dropped their average monthly short-term, long-term and retirement savings by 11 percent, to $1,923.

Military service members also increased their overall savings 23 percent, to $2,385.

Unprepared for H1N1: Telework Exchange study

The federal government lags behind the private sector in preparing for an H1N1 influenza outbreak, according to a new study released by the Telework Exchange.

Sixty percent of federal managers say their workforce could not telework during a pandemic, compared with 45 percent of private-sector respondents.

Feds cited a few obstacles to telework: 46 percent said their agencies don't have the technology to support it, and 29 percent blamed management challenges.

The survey polled 301 people. Fifty percent are federal managers; the other 50 percent work for medium and large corporations.

Civilians in South Korea can extend tours

The Defense Department said Dec. 2 it is extending the maximum tours of duty some civilian employees and their families can serve in South Korea.

Civilian employees accompanied by their families will be able to work at bases in South Korea for up to three years.

Previously, those civilians could only spend up to two years at those bases.

The Air Force Personnel Center said in a release that Defense wants to improve its continuity of operations at its Korean bases, save money by reducing transfers and improve the quality of life for civilian employees and their families.

Employees who do not have their families with them will still have their tours capped at one year.